BRAC Education Programme (BEP) and Quality Improvement in The Country's Education

Don't Teach Them to Think Like You.Teach Them to Think for Themselves.
-Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder, BRAC

In the years following Bangladesh's independence, various efforts were made to achieve universal primary education. However, despite some successes in some areas, other issues like the dropout rate, poor attendance, shortage of trained teachers, and student-teacher ratio require more discussion to ensure the quality of education. To address some of these challenges and assist the Government of Bangladesh in its efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education For All (EFA) goals by 2015 BRAC initiated the BRAC Education Programme (BEP).

Though BRAC was established in 1972 and this year marks the 50th anniversary of it's founding in Bangladesh, the program started in 1985 as BRAC Non-Formal Primary Education (NFPE) with 22 one-room primary schools to develop a school model for poor, rural children, especially girls. However, in 2003 it was renamed as BRAC Education Program (BEP). According to Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), other specific objectives of BEP includes promoting education for girls, providing quality education to low-income families, ethnic minorities, and children with special needs, as well as implementing post-primary and continuing education programs for rural poor and other economically disadvantaged communities.

Obviously, the Programme is funded by international donors, including DFAT (the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), DFID (UK Department for International Development), GAC (Global Affairs of Canada), EAC (the Qatari NGO Educate a Child), and UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund). In addition, BRAC also contributes to the financing of the BEP.

At the moment, BEP's significant strategic approaches were to support the GOB's efforts to achieve the MDG and EFA goals, and inclusive in terms of gender, ethnicity, different abilities/disabilities, and remoteness. Then, a broad-based strategy involving local NGOs, partnerships with communities, and local-level bureaucrats. Owing to these approaches, the Programme aligns with the MDGs and all EFA goals.

However, BEP conducts its programme activities according to a five-year plan and has a total of 5 components e.g., BRAC Primary School (BPS), BRAC Pre-primary Schools (BPPS), Adolescent Development Programme (ADP), Post-primary Basic and Continuing Education (PACE) and Programme Support. Adolescent Peer Organized Network (APON), Multi-Purpose Community Learning Centre (Gonokendros), and the new ShishuNiketon initiative are the major adhering institutions to achieve the overall goals of the Programme.

Of course, there were many different kinds of activities of BEP that played a significant role in improving quality education in Bangladesh. Let us begin with early childhood development (ECD), which is center-based learning for children aged 3+. In this case, an approach that emphasizes play-based learning serves as a means of stimulating early learning. Secondly, ShishuBikash Kendra operates for 4+ year-old children. Here children learn very basic education through different fun activities. It increases their holistic development. Thirdly, BRAC Pre-primary Schools (BPPS). A friendly and enjoyable environment is provided at BPPS for children aged 5+. It helps adolescents to make an easy transition from home to school. The fourth project is the BRAC Primary School (BPS), which offers a second chance to dropouts and never-enrolled poor children, especially girls, in areas where there is no government support. In a friendly environment, the same teacher teaches the five-year government curriculum through co-curricular activities. Fifth, a boat school for kids living in haors (wetlands) where water stays around 6-7 months a year. They cannot make it to school, so school comes to them. A boat school collects children from their homes and returns them after classes. Sixthly, the Bridge School offers education to students who have dropped out of grade 2/3 and continued their studies up to grade 5.

In addition, Education for Ethnic Children (EEC) schools are teaching mother tongues to ethnic children, which improved their performance, enrollment, and retention. Then Tracking BRAC Graduates in Secondary School (TBGS) was a newly introduced programme for increasing BRAC graduates' retention and completion of secondary school. Assisting with Mainstream Secondary Schools BEP aims to improve the quality of secondary education by strengthening the management capacity of HT, ATs, Management Committees, and developing the capacity of subject-based teachers. Eventually, peer mentoring was designed to build learners' leadership skills to enhance the quality of secondary education. Students use it to publish a wall magazine, participate in debates and sports competitions, etc. The mentors' proficiency in English is increased through the English language Camp. Last but not least, Computer Aided Learning (CAL) was a unique initiative of the BRAC education programme to facilitate teaching and learning in secondary schools by developing digital materials on textbook contents with interactive visuals. The above-mentioned initiatives are the major pillars leading to improvements in quality education in Bangladesh.

BRAC appoints one facilitator per school/center, except for multilingual schools, where there are two facilitators. The average number of students per facilitator is between 25 and 33. Again, for multilingual schools, two facilitators are responsible for 25 to 30 students.

You may know that, the aspiration of Article 17 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladeshstates "establishing a uniform mass-oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all children to such stage as determined by law" is clearly reflected in the above-mentioned activities of the BEP. It has served most of the aspirations embedded in current education policies and programmes of the Government i.e., National Education Policy (NEP)-2010, National ICT Policy 2009, and National Skill Development Policy 2011. The key focuses of NEP-2010 are pre-primary education, education for special children, street children, and extra poor children, learner's learning proficiency and skill development, and equity regarding gender, religion, and ethnicity have direct link-up with the vision, mission, and objectives of BEP.

From the above discussion, it is clear that the BEP has so many contributions to major improvements in the country's educational situation. One study shows that 6.3% of the total primary school students in Bangladesh were enrolled in BRAC schools. On the other hand, BRAC school students constituted nearly 20% of the total students outside the State-owned primary schools. According to the BRAC, the pass rate of BRAC preschool graduates was 99.99 %, and ethnic children and children with special needs were 100% in Primary School Certificate (PSC) exam. The pass rate of girls (91.1%) was higher compared to the pass rate of boys (89.7%) students of BRAC BEP-PACE supported schools in Junior School Certificate (JSC) exam in 2014.

Despite so many contributions of BEP, Various BRAC schools are now gradually closing due to dwindling foreign grants and an increasing number of government schools. According to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME), about 30,000 schools run by BRAC have been closed in the past era. The programme isalso criticized forlack of sufficient capable-trained teachers because of low numerations which are adversely affected the learning process. However, BEP currently working on Interactive multimedia educational digital content based on the national curriculum and focusing on the local context. Finally, it can be said that, if these digital contents can be used fully, then one more time the BRAC education program will be able to play a major role in the quality development of the country's education system in the future.


Harun Ar- Rashid Mamun
is writer acknowledge all the
different sources of information
with gratitude.